Tale of Trunks
by Skyrimosity
Summary: Pushed forward by words from his father that he can't seem to forget, Trunks begins to take his training more seriously. Little did he know that this decision would push him into the forefront of some of the most important events in the Multiverse.
1. A Hero's Beginning!

Dragon Ball: The Tale of Trunks

"Hey Dad, you got a second?" Trunks walked into the gravity chamber at Capsule Corporation wherein his father, Vegeta, Prince of All Saiyans, was training at 50 times gravity. The boy noticed it for only a second before his body pretty much automatically adjusted. He didn't know why his father only trained this high when the man could survive ten times higher probably pretty easily but that was part of the reason that he wanted to have a conversation.

Trunks watched as his idol merely continued dodging robot attacks. There were blasts coming in from all directions and nothing was being done to destroy the robots, much to his confusion. He watched as his father jumped up to one and pressed some kind of button, disabling it, and Trunks realized that this was a reaction and speed exercise more than a strength one. After getting that one robot, however, a blast connected and ended the exercise.

"I've told you about interrupting my training." Trunks could not help but feel intimidated at the menacing look he was receiving from his father. Trunks had always thought that his father was scary and anytime the man was serious not even he would violate his serious rules. Usually if he found a clever way around the more minor rules, his father would just smirk at him; on the other hand, his mother would flip if it were anything she thought to be important. He knew better than to disobey his father, though the fear was really extremely minor. More than anything, Trunks thought his dad was the coolest guy in the world. Even moreso after recent events.

"Yeah yeah, I know. But this is important!" He tried to sound urgent but was met with a roll of the eyes.

"What scheme has that woman come up with now and how are we to avoid it?" Trunks couldn't help but laugh at his father's words, even though he had come into the room preparing himself for a serious conversation. The young half-saiyan could remember several times where his mom had wanted to do something and his father was willing to listen to his ideas for getting out of it. Oh sure, his dad could just say no, but Vegeta was far more than an awesome fighter. He was smart too. And few things were worth really upsetting his mother over, and few things upset her quite as much as when she thought of something she considered special and his father gave a stern no.

"No, no, nothing like that. This is different, okay." Whatever nerve he had built up was quickly diminishing under the iron gaze of his father.

"Boy, my time is precious. Every second wasted prevents me from surpassing that moron Kakarot." Trunks always admired his father's determination. Even back from the dead, his father still wanted to be the number one fighter in the whole universe and in his opinion that was super awesome. Things were definitely a little different than they had been before; even he could tell that much. His dad was obviously more involved with the family since his return to life. There was something bothering Trunks, however. One thing his father had said:

"_Trunks, take care of your mother._"

He'd heard those words over and over again in his head, the final thing he heard from his father before the man sacrificed himself to try and defeat Buu. His dad had entrusted him to look after his mother in his absence, and he had failed to do it. He should have been able to beat Buu, with or without fusion, because that's what he needed to do to protect his mom and avenge his father. He had failed at doing that, even when transformed into Gotenks. It was nearly impossible to describe the way that it felt becoming one with Goten; the power felt limitless and awesome but he didn't feel an urgency to fight. And then, the Earth was destroyed because of it, his mom along with it.

"Spit. It. Out." Trunks was a bit embarrassed at having gotten lost in thought; he had really thought he could stay focused.

"Train me." He didn't want to just go through the motions of training with his father, being casually offered pieces of advice every now and then. He wanted the full treatment: criticism, tough exercises, difficult robotic routines designed to improve him in some area of fighting. He'd been doing the bare minimum for too long, and there's no way his father could have known how much he was holding back before he revealed he was a Super Saiyan. He was going to give it all to become a great fighter but he needed help to do it, and there was no one better to help him become great than the greatest there was.

"Bah, what nonsense is this, brat? We train together too much as it is. If only your mother would finally get around to that second gravity chamber..." Vegeta had his arms crossed, looking away. Trunks allowed himself to get discouraged for only a second before pushing forward.

"Come on Dad, you know that's not what I mean! I don't want to train with you, I want you to train me! I know you know the difference so don't even try acting dumb." Trunks had a scowl on his face, knowing fully well that his father would not have misheard the first time. His dad always had to be coerced or convinced into doing things and Trunks was sure that no question of significance had ever been answered with a 'yes' in the first round by his dad. The man turned back toward him, a slight smirk on his face.

"Oh really? Please, you are a mere 8-year old child. What could you know of truly wanting to train? Let me guess, there's some human female you want to impress?"

"What? No Dad, don't be weird!" Trunks took a breath to recompose himself after being slightly embarrassed by the question. "I am a Saiyan, right? Well I know I want to fight, just like you. I thought it was just for fun until I had to fight Majin Buu but I learned something. Fighting's fun, and super cool, but it's also serious so I need to seriously get stronger for next time."

"For next time? Please, do you believe that a creature stronger than that is both in this universe and likely to find Earth?"

"Duh! Wasn't Cell supposed to be the strongest ever but then Buu came around? Of course it could happen again. I need to be ready!"

"This planet truly may be the most dangerous damn place in the universe, I'll confess that much. But I do not think you know exactly what you are asking. You will learn to endure pain, boy, because there is no better way to correct mistakes. I will hold no punches for doing so is disrespectful to any true warrior. Do you possibly think you can handle that?"

Trunks was just smiling because this was actually going much better than he had expected it to. The fact that his father had already accepted the training as a possibility at all was great.

"Of course I can!" He could take a hit; he had taken more than a few Super Saiyan punches from Goten in the past, after all. He had totally faked it the last time his dad hit him to get a trip to the park.

Vegeta scowled. "The fact you are smiling shows me that you do not understand. Leave."

Trunks couldn't believe his ears. Where had that come from? He hadn't been ready to get shot down at this point. Why was his dad being so unreasonable?

"No." He said, without thinking any longer.

"What was that, boy?" A dangerous aura emanated from his father, one that actually made Trunks reconsider despite his week of preparing to ask. The look on his face was completely, totally serious and Trunks could feel himself shaking. He knew he couldn't give in if he wanted to be able to protect people like his mother in the future but it was stupidly hard to disobey his father when the man gave him that kind of look. Visions of every single form of entertainment he had being destroyed played in his mind, before he violently shook his head side to side to regain his composure.

"You're... you're just scared that I'll be stronger than you! Yeah, that's it!"

"Hah, insolent brat. A mere child such as yourself would surely prefer to play with friends and other frivolous wastes of time. Why should I sacrifice my training to train you when you would eventually decide to stop?"

Trunks took a moment to think about a proper answer. "Come on Dad, you really think I'd be like Gohan?" He saw his father roll his eyes before turning his head, letting Trunks know that he was on-target with who the man was thinking of. From what he had heard, Gohan was the strongest warrior in the world at the end of the Cell Games but he started to focus more on studying and school. "I don't want to run the company, that'd be super boring. I want to be a fighter, just like you! And I know that if you train me I'll be the best in the whole universe!" After all, nobody took training more seriously than his dad so if he could get his dad to train him who knew how great he would get!

A silence filled the room, feeling like it was going on forever but in reality only lasting a few minutes. At this point he started to notice the higher gravity in the room, like a persistent nagging feeling, but he continued to stand there. He just knew that this was some kind of final test. He had asked, he had pleaded, he had made his case, and he had stood up when his father said no. Surely that was a formula for success.

"Very well." He jumped into the air excited, one fist outstretched upward in celebration. The slight annoyance of the enhanced gravity was forgotten. He could practically feel his father's annoyance but didn't really care in that second. "However!" The gruff yell cut through the haze of celebration, making Trunks focus again. "I will tolerate no slacking or disobedience. You shall also not spar with anyone but me. Should you do so, the training ends." Trunks frowned at not being able to spar with Goten but he had worried his dad might say he wasn't allowed to see Goten at all. "If at any point this agreement becomes excessively inconvenient to me, I may end it. Understood?"

"Absolutely! Oh boy, I can't believe I got you to agree! I must be smarter than Mom!" He saw his father scowl, and he immediately panicked. "Oh, uh, I mean, thanks Dad!"

"I doubt you shall thank me for long boy. However, you seem very serious about this." The man smirked, before holding up two fingers. "Two months."

"Oh wow, it's only going to take two months? That's not very long."

"Hah, you stupid boy. Two months, before you give up. And return to your frivolous childhood passions." Trunks did not take well to being offered a challenge, and he swore that his father had the most _challenging _smirk that he had ever seen on anyone. And he had seen tons of them from Goten. A part of him processed that it actually seemed like his father was going to take this seriously, and that intimidated him a little bit. He had somewhat expected that even if the man agreed, he would be left doing some kind of lightweight wimpy training while his dad did the real stuff, so that his father could tell his mother 'Oh please, I **am** training the boy' if he were to ever complain to her.

"Whatever Dad. You won't be getting out of this so easy."

"I suppose you're ready to begin?" Well Trunks sure hadn't been expecting to actually do anything right now but he supposed there was no harm in it. Although, he was just wearing some of his casual clothes and not his fighting gear. He probably should have thought of that beforehand but he had been a little too nervous. He didn't ask for a lot from his father, and usually he would just talk to his mother for anything important, but this felt like it should just be the two of them.

"Let me go change into fighting clothes first!"

Vegeta nodded, Trunks immediately running out of the room. And head-first into something. He heard a light yelp as he heard it hit the ground but the surprise of it all made himself also fall to the ground.

"Trunks, honey, what are you doing running around like that?" Oh, it was his mother. He stood back up quickly, dusting himself off, smile on his face.

"Mom, you're not gonna believe it! I got Dad to agree to train me! Not, like, the usual stuff, but real hardcore awesome Saiyan Warrior training!"

She scowled slightly, a reaction that surprised him. "Oh, did you now?"

"Yeah. Did I... do something wrong?" He didn't know what else it could be, but his worries were relieved a bit when she smiled at him. The last thing he wanted was his mom mad at him; his dad may be kinda mean sometimes, but the man was typically straightforward. His mom was patient and sometimes waited months before bringing something up as leverage to get him to do something. He was pretty sure he'd heard her use things from before he was born to get his father to do things.

"Of course not sweetie. I just need to have a short talk with your father. You best be on your way." She was using a very troublesome tone of voice, and he felt a bit of sympathy for his father. However, he was happier that it wasn't him on the receiving end of whatever was about to come. Were the situations reversed, he knew his dad would be thinking the same thing. So he just nodded and ran to his room, racing through the hallways with ease. He burst through his door and ran to his closet; there, hanging up, were dozens of his fighting suit.

He took off his clothes and put on the dark green gi in an instant, grabbing his orange boots as well, before going to his dresser and reaching in the top drawer to grab some orange wristbands. Once he got all that on, he couldn't help but smirk. There was something about wearing all this stuff that made him feel super strong, like a real warrior. A super awesome one. Not wasting any time, he ran all the way back to the gravity room only to be stopped by seeing the door still open and the setting at 1G. That must mean his mother was actually in there, instead of just talking to his dad from the doorway or over intercom like usual. He tip-toed to the entrance, listening, not even daring to try to look.

"I'm serious, Vegeta! He is my son! You do not have the right to decide such important things without me."

"Woman, this is extreme, even for you. He approached me. Besides, there are some matters meant to be kept between men." Trunks could have leapt for joy at the idea of his father referring to him as a 'man' but that would be childish and, clearly, he was above that.

"Ugh, fine, whatever." He heard her sigh. "Of course I'm happy that you two get some male bonding. But I know you haven't forgotten, Vegeta." He heard a footstep, and he knew he only had a few seconds. He flew silently to the end of the hallway, before starting to run back down it. He put a surprised look on his face when he saw his mom walk out but it was for nothing as she didn't even look at him, strutting down the hallway at a quick pace. Perplexed, worry came over him that his training was going to somehow be affected. He saw the room was already back to 50G and he walked in quickly, only to see the man standing there with no obvious emotion on his face. Well, at least it wasn't a scowl.

"I'm back."

"Very well. Ascend." Trunks stood there, because he didn't really know what his father meant. "Turn Super Saiyan!" The yell certainly made things clearer. Nodding his head quickly, he started charging up and turned Super Saiyan.

"Um, now what?"

"Time to spar."

"Aren't you going to, you know... ascend?" It didn't seem fair that he was in a Super Saiyan form and his father wasn't.

The man smirked; he seemed to be doing that a lot today. "Unnecessary."

Everything suddenly felt serious as Vegeta entered into a battle stance, left arm and leg slightly forward with his right arm outstretched, creating a broad, low base. Trunks had his right foot forward, right hand held into a fist at normal length with his left held slightly back. He could feel himself being examined under the steely gaze of his father and, in that second, the idea that his father was treating him as a serious opponent was far more intimidating than the man's earlier pointed looks. He gulped, knowing fully well that any hesitation in combat on his part was going to get punished. He was currently a Super Saiyan, and his father wasn't, so he at least had that advantage.

With that in mind, Trunks launched himself forward with a scream, leading with a right hook. When his father dodged to the right, he tried to do a roundhouse kick to surprise him but this time the Prince dodged backward. Not wanting to lose the offensive, Trunks pushed onward, throwing a flurry of punches that all failed to connect. Things were switched up slightly when one of his punches was caught but he freed himself with a kick. He kept up his attacks, starting to get frustrated a little bit that none of them were working. Suddenly his father barely dodged one of the punches; Trunks felt the fist in his stomach before he could react. The impact knocked the breath out of him and he jumped back, but there was no time to recover as the man attacked.

There was no time for anything but dodging as a hail of punches flew at him, forcing him to bend in crazy ways as he continually backed up. They'd been fighting for maybe a minute and already he was sweating a lot. He blocked one punch with his forearm but it hurt so bad he might as well have not done anything. Next thing he knew, there were kicks being thrown at him as well. He ducked under one, attempting to sweep his father's other leg out from under him, when the man jumped in the air and delivered a spinning kick. Trunks was knocked off his feet backwards, landing on his back with a thump.

He slowly got back to his feet, panting from the constant exertion at full energy. His father was barely breaking a sweat and that made him a little mad. Figuring that the man expected for him to take some time to breathe, he decided to immediately attack. His father barely dodged the first few strikes, and Trunks thought the surprise may have worked, but his attacks were quickly starting to look useless. He grit his teeth, trying to pick up the pace, but he was tiring out too much. He decided that, no matter what, he was going to hit his father one time. And then he got a good idea of how to do it.

When one of his punches missed, his father threw one of his own. Rather than dodge it, Trunks took the punch directly to the shoulder. Gritting through the pain, he used all his remaining energy to throw an uppercut aimed at his father's chin.

"Got you, old man!" As soon as it connected, he saw the man's head go up and felt himself smile that his attack had hit. Next thing he knew, there was a knee in his stomach, knocking the breath completely out of him. He fell to the ground, having a hard time catching his breath, and his Super Saiyan form faded away. Suddenly, without its aid and being so tired, he felt nailed to the ground and found himself barely able to move at all. With the adrenaline slowing down, he also started to feel pain all over.

"That will do for now," he heard his father say, completely neutral in tone.

"No... I can keep going..." Trunks struggled to his feet, trying his best to ignore all the pain and the fact that his body was feeling ridiculously heavy. He closed his eyes, trying to find the energy but coming up short. "AAAAAHHHHHH..." He let out a powerful scream as he summoned up more from deep within him, determined to continue the spar. After several seconds, he managed to ascend once more, albeit it already worn out and panting. He needed to push himself to the absolute limit and farther if he were going to ever become an equal with his father.

"Don't underestimate me, Dad!" Trunks launched himself forward, putting more energy than usual to maximize his speed. He attempted a kick, knowing that he had been throwing more punches and thinking that he could catch his father by surprise. It connected with a firm forearm block; Trunks used the momentum of the kick to spin himself around, attempting to deliver a kick with his other leg. The attack was dodged and he felt an elbow hit him in the head, hard. He fell to the ground and once again out of his Super Saiyan form, trying to reach up to rub his aching skull but the gravity holding his arms down. This time he felt really unable to move.

"I didn't. Spar's over."

Trunks wished he knew whether his father expected for him to even land a clean hit. The safe bet was no, but it was a Super Saiyan versus a regular Saiyan so who knew. Overall, it didn't matter; he couldn't be happy with that. He needed to be able to win.

Vegeta began talking. "Your fighting form is surprisingly..." Trunks readied himself for the worst, "average." He considered that a rather high compliment, at least coming from his father. If anyone else dared call him average then they'd be in for it. "Your striking is lax; it leaves you open, and your defense was far too panicked. Unskilled opponents would probably not notice but we don't train to fight wretches. Your power sensing is completely pathetic. I let my power fluctuate, and you failed to take advantage. And if you actually thought I didn't sense you eavesdropping on myself and your mother, then your suppression is also atrocious."

Trunks couldn't hide the surprise on his face at hearing that, but if his father was mad, there was no indication. It's not like he had overheard anything important; just some stuff about 'male bonding' and what was probably some old agreement between his parents. The man simply continued talking. "Your stamina is also lacking. Unless I say otherwise, you shall train in your base form."

"Why!" Being a Super Saiyan was incredibly awesome, and he didn't want to throw that away.

"Brat! What did I say about disobedience!" There was irritation in his father's voice, but Trunks was certain he'd heard much worse. This was not the 'back down, or else' level of irritation.

"Hey, I didn't disobey you! I just wanna know why!"

"The transformation multiplies your strength. Therefore, the stronger you are naturally, the stronger your ascension. That's why we will focus on your base power, and you shall ascend only on occasion to adjust."

Trunks thought for a moment, supposing that made some form of sense. 5 multiplied by 100 was 500 but 10 multiplied by 100 was 1000. He wasn't sure how much stronger the transformation made him but it should work in about that way. "Hey Dad, I want to learn to use your fighting stance. Can you teach me?"

Briefly, there was a look of surprise on his father's face. It disappeared so quickly he almost could have thought he'd imagined it, except the expression was so rare that he doubted he'd falsely picture it. "My fighting stance is the ancient style passed down only to those born as Saiyan Elites. It was taught to me..." Vegeta's face contorted in true anger, and Trunks was shocked enough to get back to his feet in case he needed to get out of there. Trunks could hear gritting teeth. "By my father. King... Vegeta." It was like every word caused a deep amount of pain. However, with a sigh, he could see all the tension ease from his father's face. He wondered what that was about but he wasn't dumb enough to think asking about it now would do anything. "I shall not teach it until I am certain you shall never deny your place as a mighty Saiyan warrior."

Trunks frowned; who knew how long that would take. Still, he was not worried, because he knew that he would prove himself eventually. He just hoped that no major threats would pop up for a while. Although, now that he thought about it, if it was only taught to Saiyan Elites, and his father was willing to teach it to him eventually, then that meant he must be elite. He couldn't help but smirk at that thought.

"Dinner in 5 minutes, boys!" His mother's voice rang through the intercom, thankfully sounding happier than she had earlier. Now his smirk shifted to a smile; dinner sounded amazing right now! He was starving after using up so much energy so quickly but that's what going full power from the start could do, he supposed. He attempted to walk out the door only to find that he couldn't lift his leg. He struggled momentarily, before summoning up enough energy from somewhere - probably his stomach - to move it forward.

"Oh man, this sucks, if I'm late she'll kill me!"

"To truly master this level of gravity, it is not enough to be able to handle it. It must become second-nature, to the point where it does not impede you in anyway no matter your state of exhaustion."

Trunks was surprised at having an unspoken question answered; he would not have dared to say anything along the lines of 'Hey Dad, why are you training at 50G? That's wimpy' but he had wondered about it earlier. It was rare to have anything answered by his father, much less something that hadn't even been asked. Maybe the spar had gone good in his dad's eyes after all!

"You best hurry, brat. Your mother will tolerate nothing right now." And with that, the Saiyan Prince left the room, Trunks still trying to summon up the strength to walk out, finally reaching the door a few minutes later. The half-Saiyan rushed forward once free of the extra gravity, fearful of getting on his mom's bad side.

* * *

beta read by: Andorian

A/N: Hey everyone, let me get things out of the way. I am very busy writing my other stories, and I don't know how often I'll be able to update this. This is, for me, very much a passion project in which I try to inject a little more of Kid Trunks into the Storyline of Dragon Ball Super. I hadn't planned on posting it for a while, but I'm hoping for at least a little feedback on the first few chapters. I've had a hard time finding good fan-fic with this version of Trunks as a main character (I'll be honest, I've been able to find pretty much zero), and I personally feel like it's an area that could be fleshed out quite a bit given a bit of proper writing.

I'll also be attempting some world-building and some explanation of the basic stuff in the DB universe so we'll see how that goes. I hope you enjoyed this first chapter (which takes place after Buu, before Battle of Gods, if you're curious)!

As always, feel free to follow, favorite, review, or simply continue onward!


	2. Sensory Training!

Dragon Ball: The Tale of Trunks

Chapter 2

Trunks lay in bed, his entire body aching and totally unwilling to move. It had taken a lot for him to even get to breakfast that morning, and then he had trained with his father after that. They were interrupted by lunch, and then afterwards he had excused himself to his room. Surprisingly his father had not even scowled disappointingly at him when he did so; Trunks figured the man was probably satisfied to get some extra solo training in. For the past four days, Trunks had spent every bit of free time he had in the gravity chamber training with his father. Thankfully for the half-saiyan, they had not sparred again; instead he was forced to do simple but strenuous physical exercises. One-armed pushups got super annoying at fifty times gravity after the first few dozen.

Somebody opened the door, and Trunks groaned. The chances of it being his father were about one in a million; no way the man would seek him out for training. Vegeta hadn't even established a training schedule; Trunks just decided to be there everyday after school for the training and that seemed to be working fine thus far. Except, of course, for today, since today was Saturday and therefore the first day he hadn't had school during his training. He wanted to be sure that he wasn't spending too little time training and disappointing his father but right now he needed to rest. There was a chance it was his mother, and that could mean he was in trouble and he did not want to deal with that.

"Trunks, why are you still in bed?" Trunks supposed that this was probably the second most likely visitor.

"I'm exhausted, Goten. Been busy the last few days." He wasn't sure if he should mention his training but he supposed it would probably be unavoidable since he needed to tell Goten that they couldn't spar anymore. "My dad agreed to train me."

"Didn't you train with your dad a lot anyway Trunks?" He could hear the confusion in Goten's voice.

"Yeah, but this is different. I've always trained with him, and he'd give me occasional tips and pointers, but I usually just had to learn from him by watching him. This time, he's really going to be training me, teaching me stuff directly, running me through routines and all that junk."

"Whoa! Really?" There was amazement and excitement in the younger half-saiyan's voice, bringing a smile to Trunks's face.

"Yep. And he's crazy serious about it too."

"That's so cool! Do you think he'd train me too?" Trunks was surprised at that question and thought about the answer. It seemed incredibly unlikely, given that Goten was the son of Goku, a man whom Trunks almost heard exclusively referred to in a negative way. Additionally, Trunks was unsure if his father even knew Goten's name; he'd only ever heard his best friend referred to as 'Kakarot's Second' or some form of 'Brat'.

"I don't think so, Goten. Besides, I'd kinda like this to stay a thing for me and my dad, ya know?" Training was pretty much the only thing they really did together, and it was actually kind of nice. Trunks appreciated the way that his father had taken it seriously and not blown him off or just given him exercises and thrown him out of the gravity chamber. He definitely didn't feel like things were being taken easy on him, and the challenge of enduring it was more fun than the boring schoolwork he had to do. It also felt really different over the past few days than the rest of the time he had spent trying to train with his father. Everything was much more serious.

"I guess. I don't think I could ask my dad; he can't even manage to get time to train for himself. Mom really wants him to try this farming thing and is pretty serious about it." Trunks always appreciated his mom more whenever Goten talked about Chi-Chi. It made him remember that there were some advantages to being the son of the president of Capsule Corp. Trunks didn't know him all that well, but he found the idea of Goku working on a farm pretty funny. That made him think of his own father working on a farm, and he burst out laughing, imagining the man struggling to pick a carrot and yelling at it before blasting the dirt.

"What about your brother?" Trunks offered, to which the younger boy shook his head.

"He's busy with his _girlfriend!_" Goten said the word with a high-pitched, comical inflection. "And with school. Gohan's so boring; he doesn't ever want to have any fun."

"Yeah; who wants to spend all that time studying like him? School's so lame." Trunks sat up in his bed, ignoring all the pain and aching. He was still in his training gi; he hadn't bothered to change, choosing instead to collapse as soon as he got into the room.

"I know, right? Oh hey, do you want to have a little spar? I bet that'd be fun!"

"Actually Goten, I need to tell you something." There was a questioning look in the other's eyes. "I can't spar with you anymore."

"WHAT? Why not!" He hated to disappoint his best friend and there was definitely an obvious look of disappointment on the other half-Saiyan's face.

"Dad's rules. It's not just you, though. He said I can't spar with anyone while he's training me." Granted, that was pretty much exclusive to Goten. The only other people he could have a good spar with were probably Piccolo, Gohan, and Goku. He may not have known what exactly Piccolo was up to but he didn't know the guy all that well. Gohan and Goku were too busy doing other things, and even if Goku were free, it'd be silly to expect to not get in trouble for training with his dad's main rival even if it wasn't directly against the rules.

"Aww man, that's awful. I thought Mr. Vegeta kinda liked me." Trunks wasn't going to say his dad didn't like Goten, but he was almost one-hundred percent certain the man had never done anything that might hint he did. Goten was just really bad at reading things like that. He got out of bed and immediately started to stretch, twisting his body in a bunch of ways to try to ease some of the soreness.

"So can we hang out at least?" Goten asked, making Trunks think. They certainly could; it was not forbidden. He was just trying to figure out when exactly he'd ever have time.

"Yeah; Dad didn't forbid that. Just give me until next weekend to figure out when I'll actually have some free time, okay?" It didn't seem like there would be any time during the weekdays, between school, training, homework, and anything else that might come up. He could probably steal a few hours during the weekends though, and that should be enough; besides, not even a training addict like his father would mind a few hours of doing something else.

"Aww, that long? But I'll be so bored!"

"Look, I'm sorry Goten, but this is important to me, okay?" There was not a serious bone anywhere in Goten's body, and it was starting to get on his nerves a little bit. As if everything was about having fun. Obviously it was great to spend some time and have some fun, and not be a stick-in-the-mud like Gohan, but some things were serious!

"Why are you taking this so seriously, anyway? Both our dads are alive again and they'll keep us safe."

"I need to be ready in case something happens again! I don't want to be useless the next time there's a real threat, you get it?" Trunks's voice had risen a little bit in annoyance, both at Goten's way of thinking and the memories that his own statement had brought up.

'_Trunks, take care of your mother.' _He needed to get stronger; much, much stronger. Why didn't Goten get that?

"But we weren't useless! When we were Gotenks we were way stronger than Buu, remember?"

"Yeah, maybe, but it didn't matter because we were too careless. Besides, no offense, but I don't want to have to fuse everytime we're in a fight, understand?"

"Not really. Fusing is awesome!" It was hard to stay angry at Goten, and Trunks's slowly rising temper started to cool off in the face of the guy's happy-go-lucky attitude. Still, he couldn't help but think that Goten was just never taught anything about Saiyan Pride like he was.

"Maybe, but if it makes me toy around even against Buu, I don't think it can be trusted." Trunks ran in place for a few steps, feeling good enough now to resume his training even with the lingering soreness still in the background. He knew the feeling would be back after fifteen minutes or so of anything straining but he needed to be willing to push forward anyway if he was going to be as strong as his father. Or maybe even stronger.

"Anyway Goten, I think I'm ready to train again. I'll see you next weekend, okay?"

There was a sad look on the other half-Saiyan's face but Trunks wasn't going to do anything about that.

"Alright Trunks. I guess I'll try to find something fun to do." Trunks watched as his friend went to the window and flew away. His mom didn't want Goten coming over without using the regular entrance but she didn't mind if he flew away to leave. Trunks was feeling a little sadder now that Goten was actually gone, but he figured that this is the way things were now and Goten was going to have to get used to that.

It didn't take him very long to get to the gravity chamber, and he was surprised to see the setting all the way up at 150G from 50G. What had happened to getting so used to the gravity that you wouldn't need to even think about? As he walked in the room, it felt like a crushing force was put on his shoulders for a second but with some effort he was able to move. Fighting Buu and the bits of training he had been doing must have already made him stronger because 150 was nearly impossible before. His father was on the ground, in base form, doing pushups with two fingers with a hand behind the back. Sweat was pouring down his face.

"Hey Dad, sorry I took so long." All the man did was scoff at the statement. "So, ummm, why's the gravity so high right now anyway?"

"Higher-intensity physical workout." Was all the explanation he received about that before his father continued talking. "For you, boy, you should spend this time focusing on sensing energy. On this miserable planet, there are only ten energies of any significance. I expect you to be able to sense all of them."

Trunks nodded his head, the gravity making him have a hard time lifting his head back up temporarily. At least it was nothing too physical. He walked to the wall and sat down, closing his eyes with both his hands held into fists. He knew that he was going to get this done pretty easily and he started feeling for the sources of energy. The first was obvious: his father, an extremely large and overpowering energy, probably due to their closeness. The next source of energy was also clear, even though it was some distance away. Definitely Goku. He could tell it was spiking a bit every few seconds and figured the guy must have been training somehow, despite what Goten had told him.

It was actually kind of difficult to find the next one, with those two energies overwhelming his senses with their size. He had to work to get past it, starting to sweat from focusing so hard mixed with enduring the high gravity. However, he then identified one that was moving very quickly, seemingly away from him. Certainly Goten. Then there was another one, a good bit stronger but much further away. Gohan. He sensed for more but it was getting difficult with all these energies starting to blend together to his senses.

Trunks took a deep breath, keeping the four energies he'd sensed so far separated in his mind while he looked for the others. His father's energy, being so strong and so close, was the hardest to keep separated mentally followed by Goten's, strangely enough. It seemed like forever before he found the next energy, far away, in a location that Trunks didn't think there was anything around. He remembered the feeling of that energy; it was Piccolo's.

He tried to ignore all the energy signatures thus far but it became impossible. When he searched for new ones, he kept running back into the ones that he had already found. He was surprised at how much trouble he was having; he really should've guessed that just because he could sense energy that didn't mean he was all that good at it. That was, after all, part of the reason he'd asked for real training. He kept trying but it was like there was some kind of block and he could feel that he wasn't making progress. After a while, he got frustrated enough to open his eyes and lose the energies.

"Ummm... how long was I sensing?" He asked because he saw his father was now doing some kind of exercises with the training robots. How had he not heard that?

"Thirty minutes." Trunks was kind of surprised to get an answer but was more surprised at how long he had tried. He noticed he was sweating pretty hard but ignored that for now.

"Man, that's a lot harder than I thought it'd be." He said to himself. "Hey Dad, how long did it take you?"

"My sensing was learned almost exclusively on fields of battle; I spent little time training dedicated to it. Consider your ability to do so a luxury." Trunks watched as his father dodged a blast from the robot, before sending one back and destroying it. He supposed this is why his mom and Grandpa made hundreds of the things. He watched as his father breathed heavily, panting, with sweat pouring down his face. Yet, the man simply walked to the control panel, pressed a few buttons, and two more robots came down from the ceiling.

"How many fights have you been in, anyway?" He knew his father had been on some planet called Namek, fought in the Cell Games, and of course fought against Buu, but he didn't really know how many fights his dad had been in during that time. That was, like, twelve whole years or something close to that.

"More than you could imagine, boy." Vegeta answered, in an even tone.

"Wow, really? Come on, tell me about them!" He knew his father was the greatest fighter in the whole universe and he wanted to hear some of the stories of his fights. Sometimes it felt like he barely knew anything about the man he admired more than anyone else in the world.

"Focus on your training!" Trunks could detect a bit of anger in the man's voice.

"It's so unfair. I know you're the greatest warrior there is, and you always mention being in all these battles, but nobody ever tells me about them." He crossed his arms in front of his chest and had a scowl on his face at the thought. After a few minutes, however, it was obvious that this approach was not going to work. He needed to change his style if he wanted to learn more about his dad.

"Can you tell me more about my Saiyan heritage at least?" He tried not to smirk as his father looked at him somewhat suspiciously. His father was the proud Prince of All Saiyans so asking a question like that was more likely to get a response.

"Quit slacking," was the only response.

"I'm not slacking; I'm training by enduring the gravity." It wasn't all that bad now that he was a little bit used to it but it was still kind of the truth. He saw his dad close his eyes and Trunks figured the man was trying to figure out whether it'd be less trouble to answer or not answer.

"The Saiyans are a warrior race known and feared throughout the galaxy." Trunks noticed his father refer to Saiyans in the present tense, even though he knew there were only five of them. "We lived on Planet Vegeta, conquering planets though never settling them. Our goal was to fight and vanquish opponents above all else. We'd sell the planets after we were finished." Everything after Planet Vegeta was new to Trunks and he was hanging onto every word. It surprised him that his ancestors were conquerors; he thought Saiyans trained and fought just to get stronger. "One day, Planet Vegeta was destroyed by a meteor and the race annihilated, except for a few of us who were off-world." He knew the planet was destroyed but hadn't known how. So that was how Grandpa Vegeta had died, he guessed. But something didn't really add up.

"A meteor? But couldn't everyone have just blown that up when they noticed it? And didn't the planet have good technology if they traveled through space so much? So, they should have seen it coming right?"

Trunks saw his father frown, an eye ticking in anger, and for a second he regretted questioning the planet's destruction. However, he determined that look wasn't directed at him which just made him even more curious.

"I had similar thoughts when I was told. But saying them aloud was not an option. The planet was destroyed, by a tyrant named Frieza."

"Whoa, really? Well what happened to this Frieza guy?" He made a note to look up what a tyrant was later.

"Kakarot beat him on Namek by becoming a Super Saiyan." His father's voice was rough and Trunks could hear the anger in it; was it because Goku beat Frieza instead of him? There was a hesitation before his dad continued. "Frieza came to Earth two years later because Kakarot didn't finish the job on Namek. But..." there was another pause, before the man sighed, "Kakarot killed him that time." That struck him as a bit odd. Goku seemed like a nice guy from what Trunks had seen so it was hard to imagine him killing someone. Battles could be confusing though so who knew what might have happened. Maybe if he visited Goten anytime soon he would ask Goku then. For some reason, Trunks couldn't help but be confused about his father's tone when he said that last line. Why wasn't it angry like when he spoke of Goku beating Frieza the first time? Maybe he was just happy that Frieza was dead.

Then something struck him from what his father had said. "Wait... Namek. That's the planet that you and mom met on, right?"

The look on his father's face made him aware that he was suddenly in a dangerous topic. "What do you know of Namek, boy?" It was the kind of tone that demanded an answer.

"Ummm... nothing really. Mom told me that she was on Namek the first time she met you but she never answers anything else about it."

"That's enough of this nonsense. Back to training." Trunks watched in amazement as the Saiyan Prince launched himself into a routine involving the two robots. They were zooming around the room, seemingly unaffected by the gravity - probably thanks to something his mom invented - launching blasts from two directions at high speeds. His father continuously dodged, and briefly he wondered why the man didn't destroy the robots quickly before deciding that was not part of this training.

Despite the high gravity, his father was still kind of fast even without being a Super Saiyan. It was obvious that there was a bit of resistance to his movement, like a rope was pulling him the opposite direction no matter what, but the movement was still pretty smooth. After about a minute of dodging, Trunks watched as Vegeta deflected a blast from one robot into another, destroying it in a small explosion. Almost immediately following that, the first robot was destroyed in a similar manner.

Trunks went back to sensing for all the energies he was expected to find; this time, it was a little easier finding the top five: Vegeta, Goku, Goten, Gohan, Piccolo. All the energies kind of had their own unique feeling so it was easier to detect when he kind of knew what to look for and, of course, a general idea of where. Although Goten and Piccolo had moved quite a bit it's not like they had travelled the whole planet or anything. All their energies danced around in his head and, despite his focus, he was still unable to sense past them. Then, something clicked in his head.

Maybe sensing past them was the wrong idea. Instead of doing that, he should sense through them, just in case there were small energies around the bigger ones. He could tell that Goten was not close to his home at all so he focused in more on that energy. Wherever Goten was out raising trouble there was at least some chance that someone else strong would be there as well. The location was in the middle of the sea... wait, he had been there before with Goten actually. Kame House or something like that. Didn't that old man live there, Master Yoshi or something like that? Oh yeah, Roshi. He lived there with Krillin and Eighteen. Looking through Goten's energy, after a few more minutes, he could detect two other smaller sources. So that was probably Roshi and Krillin. After fighting Eighteen, he knew for sure that hers was not that low. She was super tough and must be really amazing at suppression. She was probably there though so he'd go with that.

"Alright, eight down. I'm gonna master this in no time!" He was feeling really excited but that excitement was killed by a single sound. The sound of laughter. Not his own, no, his father's, a loud laughter that echoed across the room.

"Master? Boy, you best temper your expectations. You should be able to sense all ten energies within seconds, even in the midst of combat. You're still an utter novice." He knew that training was going to be a lot of hard work over a long amount of time, but the words were still like a bucket of cold water to the face. "Oh, and don't think that Eighteen or her brother count."

"Eighteen has a brother? Wait, why don't they count?"

"None of your concern. Now get on with it."

He had been hoping that he would get sensing mostly down today so he could focus on the cooler stuff like blasting things. Now he knew that this boring kind of training was going to take a lot longer. He couldn't help but scowl at the thought, but he was still determined to keep up his training no matter what. If Eighteen didn't count then he supposed he was back to seven with three energies left to find. He wasn't going to get put-down by some stupid sensing; no, he needed to be able to protect his mom.

It occurred to him that he hadn't even sensed his mother yet and therefore wasn't familiar with her ki. He focused entirely on the energy all around him, which mostly involved a large effort to block out his own father's. As he tried to keep that up, he found it incredibly difficult to sense anyone in Capsule Corp. He was trying his best but he couldn't feel any of the servants or scientists. He kept looking for less and less, knowing that normal humans didn't have a lot, but still unable to find it.

"You are not to be in this room tomorrow," Vegeta said, breaking Trunks out of his young boy was surprised by that statement but he waited for clarity. "We shall spar, after your schooling in two days. Use tomorrow however you like."

Trunks understood: he needed to take it easy and heal up a bit for the spar. He was a little excited to have a day off from any physical training and he figured he could at least work more on his sensing. He tried to nod his head, but this time the gravity was really troubling and he couldn't lift his head up. Before he knew it, he was laying on the ground. Moving at this point didn't even feel possible. He heard a sigh from his father.

"Ascend." Trunks felt excitement at those words, gathering a bit of energy in his back and quickly turning into a Super Saiyan. The rush of energy felt great and he jumped to his feet, the gravity merely a nagging feeling to him now. Briefly he tried sensing for all the energies again, wondering if it'd be easier as a Super Saiyan, but he noticed that it was actually harder due to how high his own energy was. He couldn't help but frown. Sensing was a lot harder than he'd expected.

* * *

A/N: Hey everyone; so, if any of you are familiar with my other stories, I always like to post Chapter 2 pretty quickly after Chapter 1 so that readers know what to expect. Update speed is definitely not going to be this fast in the future.

So one particular point in this chapter: I don't know if it's ever mentioned whether Trunks & Goten are aware of Eighteen's past. So unless someone can point me to a definitive moment saying otherwise, I'm going to say no. If you can, then I'll appreciate it and edit some things around.

I'm hoping this chapter explained sensing in a decent way; I ran with the idea that Trunks was bad at sensing due to the part of the Buu Saga where Goten looks at a beat-up Vegeta and says "Is he dead?" and Trunks replies with "No, he can't be" as opposed to "No, I still sense some energy" or something like that.

As always, thank you for reading. Please feel free to follow, favorite, and/or review!


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